The Police and Border Guard (PPA) have a new online portal where citizens can apply for ID cards based on previously issued identification. According to PPA spokeswoman Olja Kivistik, they are planning to extend the use of the portal to all residents that have a personal identification code.

The portal also allows parents to apply for first-time documents for their underaged children, the police stated in a Monday press release. The new web environment went online on June 15.

For now, the new service is limited to citizens, but PPA is planning to extend it to all residents with a personal identification code, Kivistik said.

Through the new portal citizens can apply for a new ID card based on the data collected in the process leading up to issuing a previous identification document. As chief expert of PPA’s identity and status office, Marit Abram explains, the new e-environment allows individuals to quickly apply for new documents. Most of the required information was already available, which made the application process easier.

Beyond their existing ID cards, people could also log in using their Mobile ID or Internet bank, which is good news for Apple users, as the state’s systems typically don’t work to the full extent for anyone coming in using Apple devices.

That people could use their bank to log in meant that also those could apply for a new ID whose existing one had already lost its validity, Abram added.

The solution likely to be very welcome, as PPA has limited the number of offices where people can apply for documents to just a handful of service centers, and queues have been a constant problem.

According to Markus Lausmaa of SMIT, the Ministry of the Interior’s IT and development center, the new platform is geared towards simplicity and ease of use. “Those who don’t use a computer every day also need to be able to fill in the application. As a lot of the form is filled in automatically, ideally there are just six actions that need to be taken,” Lausmaa said, adding that the platform also worked for smartphones and tablets.

There are plans to extend the portal’s services to include passport applications as well other processes that are currently limited to PPA’s service centers, and to include all residents of Estonia that have a personal identification code (isikukood).

The Reform Party's parliamentary group in the Riigikogu decided on Monday to support Kalle Laanet's candidacy for the position of deputy speaker. This means that the group has turned on party chairman Hanno Pevkur, who will have to make way for Laanet. The decision follows yet another weekend of bickering and conspiracy theories inside Estonia's leading opposition party.